Jordan
by HufflepuffFinder98
Summary: The life and times of one Jordan Catalano and his relationship with Angela Chase.
1. Chapter 1

Contrary to whatever she thought, I did notice Angela. I can still remember that day in 1994 when she dropped her books off the bleachers and I helped her pick them up. I was just being a nice guy, I would've helped anyone else.

But the moment I saw her face, it was different. She had these huge green eyes and it was hard for me to _not_ look at them. She looked back at me for a second and I felt this weird shock go through me, something I've never experienced with anyone else. I just can't describe it. She broke her gaze from me and walked away without thanking me and I went back to smoking a cigarette.

But I kept thinking about her. Like, non stop. Her blonde hair, the lace vest she wore. I never talked to her, I just watched. She was in my math class and I would sit a few seats from her, just watching. The two seats next to her were always taken, by Cherski and some curly haired guy. They would laugh and every now and then he would lean a bit too close to her. I didn't know why it pissed me off so much.

It got bad. I couldn't sleep, I was obsessed though she didn't know it. In September, I was at this party and was totally stoned to where I couldn't even move. This girl came in and sat next to me but I didn't really care. She said some things to me but I can't remember them. When Tino told me who she was later, I wanted to kick myself.

A few weeks later, Tino found this house that had been empty for a while and we would go there to practice and down a few brewskis. I drove through a neighborhood a few times, not really paying attention until I saw this redheaded girl come out of one the houses and start arguing with the curly haired kid from class. I was about five houses away but I could hear them fighting, I just didn't know about what. She turned around and I knew it was her instantly. I felt like something jumped inside of me and my heart started beating faster. She got into a car with someone and I left to go wherever; if I stayed too long some paranoid suburbanite would call the cops.

I ended up in a parking lot one between an old drugstore and some nightclub. Shane, Tino, and a couple of other guys were there to kill a few hours and I ended up getting way too drunk that night.

Lucky for me, Tino offered me a ride. I was out of it and slumped against a wall until it was time to leave.

I heard some chicks fighting as I tried not to doze off. When I got into Tino's car I saw _her_ get put in a cop car. Rayanne Graff was with her and I couldn't believe she was with Rayanne Graff and not Cherski. The cop took them away and I didn't see her for a few days.

When I did see her at school the following week, I got my first good look at her since spring and I felt the same shock go through me again. That was the first time I knew she wasn't just anyone to me.


	2. Chapter 2

I didn't see Angela for a while after that. More accurately, I didn't get to see her since they moved my classes. October came and Rayanne Graff started bugging me under the bleachers for something. I really didn't care, at least until Angela's name came up.

I pretended not to care and I think I did a good job. It did take a lot _not_ to laugh when Graff said Angela was french. Clearly she thought I was a bigger idiot than I was but I played along. In the end, Graff got what she wanted, a fake ID for Angela. I have no idea what they wanted with one but I said I would get it to them.

"She lives near Liberty Park, it's the house with the rose bushes."

She didn't need to tell me where Angela lived, but it couldn't just tell her, I knew where Angela lived. She'd tell her I was like, stalking her. At least Graff didn't tell me the address, I knew she thought I couldn't read. It's not like was wrong.

I showed up outside of her house around 8 and I felt the shock again and it was like the shock got stronger when she got in my car.

During the second time I saw her, I screwed up.

"You talk a lot."

"I've said like eight words to you my entire life."

Angela sounded annoyed and I don't blame her. Inside, I was kicking myself.

I gave her the fake ID and when she got out of the car, I wanted her to come back in and talk a little more. When I drove off, I saw the curly haired kid watching me out the window of the house, looking like he was uncomfortable. I didn't know they were next door neighbors and it made me uneasy. Like, he could just go do anything with her whenever she wanted.

* * *

A few days before a three day break, we took this trip to an art museum in downtown Pittsburgh. I don't remember too much of it, other than Shane talking about how this chick in a painting looked like Sharon Stone and a talk I had with Angela.

I pretended to look at the statues but really, my eyes were on the redhead looking at the Chinese jade dragon. I think she caught me and I looked away. The curly haired kid started, like harassing her about staying with the group and I just tried to ignore him but it just like, pissed me off that he was bothering her that way. She didn't deserve that.

"So, I'm in this band now." I told Angela and I saw her look towards me. She looked surprised that I was talking to her and I knew I had to keep talking to her or it would be weird.

I forget what the rest of the conversation was about. All I know is that I left happy.

Until I found the journal.

I recognized my name and a few other words. That was it. I flipped through the pages and went back to an entry marked June 12, 1993.

I felt this, like heat go through me. She was at summer camp last summer and she kissed some random guy. I saw the word "girlfriend" and it actually hurt.

I didn't get the rest of it but I put the little red book in my pocket, and it made this weird shape in there.

I started walking back towards the front of the museum, not really wanting to be seen.

Graff saw the pocket and started laughing.

"Hey Catalano, you happy to see me."

Laughing at her own joke. Clever.

"Shut up."

She always knew how to like, irritate me. And she loved it.

* * *

I knew reading Angela's diary was wrong but it was so tempting. I looked at it for hours but I still couldn't understand it. She used all these big words and I never felt more stupid. She was like this genius and I was just some idiot who got her a fake ID.

Giving it back to her sucked majorly. It was like I had finally managed to make some progress, inviting her to band practice. And then I yelled at her.

It wasn't her fault. And I was a complete dick to her. I'm kind of surprised she still wanted to see me after that.

That was the first time in my life I replayed a conversation in my brain. I felt like complete shit. I always kind of sucked at talking about my feelings, my mom was the person who was helping me with that. But mom was gone. Had been since '82. And she wasn't coming back.

 **Authors Note: The next chapter will touch more upon Jordan's personal life and childhood, rather than his canon relationship with Angela. The fic will remain canon compliant, it's just going to cover more of Jordan than was on the show.**


	3. Chapter 3

Content warning: descriptions of child abuse

My mom finally bailed on my dad in 1982, the day after he threw an alarm clock at her. What she didn't realize was that when she left him, she left him able to do whatever the hell he wanted to. The first week after she packed up and left the state, I had the bruise the size of a softball on my chest. The week after that, I was wearing long sleeves on a 80 degree day to cover up my dad scratching my arm with a fork. It never ended.

My mom left me with this asshole. From the time I was five till I was fourteen, he stubbed out cigarettes on my arms, called me faggot, and generally made my existence a complete hell. He started leaving me alone after I threw a chair at him in 1991. After that, I learned to deal with myself. I learned to cook, learned to drive, how to score with women.

When I was 10, I found out my mom had a kid with some guy she was living with. A couple years later, they had another. It hurt like hell, that she left me with him and yet had these two little kids with some random guy.

I was good with women. If you looked at what happened to me as a kid, I should've been a Goddamn serial killer. I could flirt, I was good in bed. But I was shit at understanding them.

That's why Angela was such a mystery to me. She was like nothing I had ever known. She wasn't Sharon Cherski, she didnt have the 4.0 GPA, the football player boyfriend. She wasn't Rayanne Graff, not caring about anything, her voice loud and brash. She was tall and lanky, she was neurotic and I know she cared too much about what others thought. What I thought. Like what I thought mattered.

She had these gorgeous green eyes, the kind my mom had. The one time I got close enough to her, her head went up to my chest. I liked it, in like a weird kind of way.


End file.
